President Joe Biden said Thursday that the federal government is rushing to help those affected by Hurricane Milton — and had a stark message for his predecessor, who has been spreading falsehoods about the federal response.
Asked by reporters after his remarks at the White House whether he had spoken with former President Donald Trump, Biden responded indignantly: “Are you kidding me?”
He then looked at the camera with a message directly for his predecessor: “Mr. President Trump — former President Trump — get a life, man. Help these people.”
Biden’s appearance on Thursday indicates how deeply the federal government wants to get their messaging in front of the deluge of misinformation that first started spreading in the wake of Hurricane Helene late last month and proliferates after Hurricane Milton this week. It’s the third time the president has addressed the country about the storm in roughly 24 hours — each time, making sure to directly denounce the spreading of false rumors while calling out one of the most prominent promoters of storm-related misinformation, Trump, by name.
And asked again as he left the room whether he planned to speak with Trump, Biden responded with: “No.”
Biden told reporters he believes lives were saved because Florida residents listened to evacuation orders issued by local officials. But, he warned, it has only been hours since Hurricane Milton made landfall and it was still too early to fully assess damages across the state.
“It’s too early to know the full account of the damage,” Biden said from the White House on Thursday. “But we know lifesaving measures did make a difference.”
Warning there were “still very dangerous conditions in the state,” Biden urged residents to continue heeding directives from their local officials while vowing the federal government will be on the ground for as long as it is needed.
“Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with state and local officials,” the president added. “We’re offering everything they need.”
But Biden’s most forceful message came regarding the swirl of misinformation and social media rumors about the storms that have spread over the last month.
Some of the false information has led to aid workers receiving death threats. Federal officials warned that in some cases the rumors are designed to prevent people who need help from seeking it.
“Those who engage in such lies are undermining confidence in the rescue and recovery work that’s ongoing,” Biden said. “These lies are also harmful to those who most need help. Lives are on the line, people are in desperate situations — have the decency to tell them the truth.”
Biden added he’s been in contact with governors, mayors and other officials across the area impacted by Hurricane Milton — seeking to clarify the level of communication between federal and state governments after some reports indicated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was ignoring calls from Harris.
Though Harris has made clear her desire to speak with DeSantis, it’s not clear what purpose would be served by a phone call between the vice president and governor. Requests for disaster declarations or federal aid are routed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the president and would not necessitate a conversation with the vice president.
DeSantis, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, said he wasn’t aware Harris had been trying to reach him but added that Harris “has no role in this process” while noting he’s been in touch with both Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who appeared, but did not speak, at a DeSantis-led media briefing in Florida earlier on Thursday.
Harris, the governor added, “is being selfish by trying to blunder into this when we’re working just fine.”
Biden and DeSantis spoke Monday night as the storm was still brewing in the gulf, according to the White House, and the pair spoke again Thursday morning after the storm made landfall.
Both officials have spoken about each other positively as Florida worked to recovery from Helene and prepare for Milton — not uncommon for even the most bitter of political rivals working together to recover from natural disasters.
Biden has also spoken with numerous other lawmakers, including staunch Trump supporter and Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott.
Biden White House officials had discussed the possibility of appointing a coordinator – often colloquially referred to as a “czar” – to oversee storm recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene devastated the country’s southeast before deciding against creating such a role, sources told CNN.
Officials involved in the deliberations of a potential czar had taken into account the severity and sheer scale of the damage left by Helene last month – particularly in western North Carolina – and were focused on ensuring a streamlined national strategy to tackle the recovery efforts, sources said.
When reached for comment, a senior White House official told CNN that “there are no plans to appoint a hurricane coordinator.”
“For any disaster response, we always discuss every potential lever and tool,” the official said. “We have a strong team in place led by the president and the vice president at the White House and across the interagency to keep executing on our strong response and recovery efforts.”
The previously unreported discussions about a possible hurricane recovery czar signals the urgency with which the federal government, under Biden’s watch, is trying to respond to the damage wreaked by Helene last month. That task only grew exponentially larger this week after Hurricane Milton passed through Florida.
Such a coordinator would have played a significant public-facing role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat what it has warned is dangerous misinformation and disinformation about the government’s role in the storm recovery, one source told CNN. It was possible that the individual would have held public briefings at a regular cadence.
It is not clear whether specific names for the coordinator role had been discussed.
The senior White House official said the administration’s work to respond to Helene and Milton has been “around the clock.”
“Bipartisan officials in impacted states are grateful for the robust whole of government effort coordinated through the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA,” the official said.
Biden, like some of his predecessors, has appointed multiple czars during his time in office. Zients previously served as the Biden administration’s Covid coordinator, taking the lead in every aspect of the government’s response to the historic coronavirus pandemic.
Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu served as Biden’s co-called infrastructure czar, tasked with overseeing the administration’s work across the country to implement a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
Former President George W. Bush appointed a Gulf Coast reconstruction czar, Donald Powell, to coordinate the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
